Smith penalty ends away-win drought for Harlequins

Harlequins’ year-long search for an away Premiership win ended with a streetwise performance which was capped by a brace of first-half tries from wing Nathan Earle and a late winning penalty from Marcus Smith.

Few sides relish a trip to Kingsholm but it holds few fears for Quins who have now won on three of their last five league visits, although Gloucester played a major part in their own downfall.

The home side had opportunities to work themselves into a position from which Danny Cipriani could have attempted a winning drop goal, instead they went for glory and the try bonus point by unleashing left-wing Matt Banahan who was bundled into touch.

Johan Ackermann, Gloucester’s head coach, complained about inconsistency from referee JP Doyle and his assistants but admitted that was not the reason for the defeat.

“We must look at ourselves and be better in our performance,” Ackermann said. “We didn’t lose because of the officiating. We lost because we are not good enough at the moment in our skill execution and our decisionmaking.”

Gloucester should have followed the example of Harlequins, who ensured they turned pressure into points by kicking four second-half penalties, the last three from Smith after he replaced James Lang.

The deciding penalty came at the first scrum after Harlequins had changed their entire front row which exposed Gloucester’s two academy props, Alex Seville and Ciaran Knight.

“It was my call. Joe Marler, Kyle Sinckler and Max Crumpton had given us a great 65 minutes and we felt we needed to make a change,” said Quins director of rugby Paul Gustard.

The visitors conceded three tries, two from Charlie Sharples and a first for Gloucester from Cipriani, but they gifted on-form Earle two in the space of as many minutes.

Lewis Ludlow knocked a pass from Cipriani into the hands of Earle and compounded his error by failing to chase the former Saracens wing.

Harlequins countered again from the restart with Ben Tapuai and Joe Marchant combining to send Earle over again. “Nathan is a great player. Saracens have some quality wings and their loss is our gain,” Gustard said.